Polycom eyes channel clean-up

Payne: we are working hard to weed out those that are not prepared to make the commitment

Polycom’s UK chief has outlined his desire to clean up the vendor’s channel as he strives for 40 per cent revenue growth this year.

Aaron Payne joined the videoconferencing specialist as UK and Ireland vice president in October. He said he had worked with distributors Westcon, Nimans and Imago to ensure the channel had committed partners.

“We are working hard to weed out those that are not prepared to make the commitment,” he said. “They devalue our brand and drive margin out of the market.”

Payne said he was happy with the current distribution lineup but would consider adding a fourth with voice skills, particularly around Microsoft Office Communications Server. He also revealed Polycom was encouraging channel firms to work together.

“We have started a prog­ramme of buddying up global service providers with some of our channel partners,” he explained.

Payne claimed he aimed to grow Polycom’s UK and Ireland sales by 40 per cent this year. Rival Tandberg’s recent buyout by Cisco offered a chance to make headway, he said.

“It is creating some confusion in the marketplace,” he added. “We need to make sure we capitalise on it while it is there.”

Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at Quocirca, agreed that the fallout of the Tand­berg buyout would “leave some opportunity in the short term for the other players”.